


What was Lost

by TunnelScreamer



Category: Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal Series - J.M. Lee, The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It of Sorts, Long lost love, Reunions, Tavronica week 2021, fictional spider biology, molting, spider Tavra, ties movie and book together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:35:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29649348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TunnelScreamer/pseuds/TunnelScreamer
Summary: Tavra slowly gets used to being a spider as the world around her changes. The lands around the Castle of the Crystal become dangerous and she must say a difficult goodbye. But with Aughra's help there is hope of a reunion.
Relationships: Onica/Tavra (Dark Crystal)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9





	What was Lost

The first time it happened it was terrifying. Tavra’s skin felt so tight it could burst. She thought it was over, that her tiny spider body had given out. An instinct rooted deep within drove her to hide. To bury herself in the hollow of a tree as if it would help her escape the pain. In the darkness she was safe. 

Her outer skin, the tough armored covering, squeezed her. Her heart was throbbing and her eight legs began to tremble. She was coming apart. Splitting in two right across her back. Struggling through the break, she turned herself inside out. 

Soon she was free. Shedding her old skin with a new one beneath. 

Of the many dreadful things that came with being a spider, molting was one of the worst. It happened many more times over many seasons. Each time she was larger and another layer further from her Vapran self. 

As she changed so did Thra. 

The lands around the Castle of the Crystal became barren and dangerous. It was a place where the resistance could not survive. Garthim conquered the countryside and the gelfling scattered themselves like seeds in the wind to the remotest places. 

Tavra wanted to go with them, but a difficult choice had to be made. To protect the ones she loved she needed to remain behind. There she could keep watch over the skeksis and garthim. And someone had to stay in hopes that the crystal could be healed.

By this time she was so large that Onica could see her many eyes clearly. And somehow despite everything her love still looked upon her strange face with the sweetest affection. Tavra was large enough to fill her palm and could hold her hand in an embrace. 

This was how they said goodbye. Tavra tightly clasping her hand, meeting together in one final dreamfast.

She thought often of the last day she’d spent with Onica. She thought of all their days together. Time passed and she continued to grow and change. 

And soon Tavra’s life as a gelfling became less a memory and more a distant dream. 

Alone in the wilds of the dark wood she would hunt. And as the suns moved with the seasons, she became as much a part of the forest as the trees themselves. One day when seeking a new nest she stumbled on a little orphan walking with a podling. 

The day she met Kira she remembered herself and her purpose. 

She would visit her often on walks in the wood, speaking to her in gelfling. When they weren’t together Tavra was always near. She ensured that no creatures saw Kira as a meal and kept her path clear of danger. She even helped the child find the courage to first ride a lanstrider. It was a proud moment for Tavra. 

As the orphan grew older Tavra became more distant. She was occupied with tracking garthim and snaring crystal bats. Tavra was a fighter not a nanny. She was also careful not to interfere with the prophecy, keeping hidden the secrets of her past.

By the time of the Great Conjunction she was larger than a podling, a sturdy barrel with beanpole legs. From the canopy she watched the shadow of the black castle fade becoming clear and prismatic in the triple sunlight. Life returned to the barren lands and Thra was restored. 

It was something she never believed she would see. Many times she had wondered what she would do when it finally happened. But now all she wanted to do was rest. With greater size and age came aches and pains. And again her outer skin became constricting and she grew heavy. 

This time she thought her body truly was giving out. Instead of seeking a cave and the safety of darkness, she sought light. Her legs carried her through the forest and up to High Hill where Aughra’s home once stood. 

She scrambled through the wreckage that had been the orrery. Suns and moons lay shattered in pieces on the ground. There old Aughra was waiting for her. 

“Princess Tavra," she said, hobbling closer, "you still in there?”

It had been a lifetime since Tavra had heard her name.

“I am,” her voice grumbled. 

“Stars you’ve gotten big, and old,” she said walking past Tavra to a high point where all of the great river was in view.

“Old bodies break down, Aughra knows how that goes. Time may have made a mess of us but it has restored our Thra,” she pointed with her staff, “and look.”

Floating down the river was something strange. An object from a memory, a vision from another life. Weary eyes focused on the distance. It was a ship. It’s sails were the crimson and blue used by the Sifa. 

“Life returns,” Aughra said, "what was once lost has come back to us.” 

Watching the ship on the horizon, Tavra forgot about her aches.

Suddenly she raised herself on all her legs. She did a nimble little turn, a test to see if she could scurry despite her fading strength. Then she stumbled and caught herself. 

Something within was pulling her away and toward the ship. A promise was remembered. 

“No,” Aughra commanded, grabbing her by her back leg. “Not like this.”

Weak and off balance Tavra fell. Before she could get up Aughra’s staff crashed down against her body. It came down again, harder this time. Tavra looked up to see the old hag take the staff in both hands, swing it behind her back and bring it down with a brutal smack. 

Her abdomen cracked open like ice on a thawing lake. Tavra felt it as cold pain and panic. With her last bit of strength she fled before Aughra could strike again.

A few stumbling steps then a steep fall. She struggled through the forest following the slope of the ground downwards toward the river. Weak and uncoordinated she continued to fall. One of her front legs got stuck behind a root and she heard it snap. Bits of outer hide, tough as armor, fell away. She tried to stand only to fall again. She finally stopped when the ground leveled at the stones and silt of the riverbank.

There she lay, among decaying logs and branches washed ashore by the river. She could smell the water slowly turning once living wood to mush. More of time making a mess of things. 

Tavra could hear the current. She struggled to move. She knew she was vulnerable, cold in her new skin. 

It was then that the sound of the current changed. Turning her head her whole body followed and she felt to her side.

The sky was filled with white clouds ruffled in a way that looked like scales. Nearer to her was the wooden hull of a ship. It had stopped though that wasn’t immediately clear by the shifting waves. She saw someone moving on the deck.

“Get the Captain! Quickly someone needs help," in her daze Tavra heard voices.

The shouting continued but she was too exhausted to respond or even raise her head. Then she heard a splash, something fell from the deck. Tavra watched a head pop up on the surface of the water. 

A gelfling from far away was swimming towards her. 

It was an old seafarer, with a face marked with lines where trine of joy and sadness had settled. But these were small changes and could not hide who she was from Tavra. 

“Onica!!” she shouted already in motion. She reached out her hand and fell to her side into the river. 

“Stay there I'm coming!” Onica shouted back, rushing to her side. 

Bits of her old spider self still clung to her as she rushed into Onica’s arms. Beneath that broken shell she had been more whole than she ever imagined. And Tavra ran her gelfling hands into curls streaked with white. She and Onica laughed and kissed and laughed. And Onica looked on her face as it had been when she set off for the swamp so long ago. The were reunited once again. 

**Author's Note:**

> I had to think of a way to give Tavra her old body back. So I made up some rules about Thra spider biology, not sure if they make sense but that's all secondary to making Tavra herself again 
> 
> And of course reuniting her with Onica and helping to save Thra in the process!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
